Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson REVIEW

 Summary:

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershow compiled a list of fiction's most unsolvable murders - which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders" - chosen from among the best of the best, including Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Ira Levin's Deathtrap.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that appear eerily similar to the killings on Mal's old list. And the agent isn't the only one interested in the bookseller. The killer is out there, watching his every move - a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal's personal history, especially the secrets he's never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn't count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead - and the noose around Mal's neck grows so tight he might never escape.

My Thoughts:

This book was SO GOOD OMG. A great example of an unreliable narrator.

Mal owns a bookstore with his friend and author Brian Murray. On a stormy winter day, he goes to close up shop when Agent Mulvey appears to tell him about the recent murders and the possible connection to his list from an old, abandoned blog.

She enlists him to think of the murders and try to figure out what other books from the list match up. Mulvey even takes him to a crime scene from a local woman that Mal was acquainted with. However, she gets taken off of the case because there was a possible connection to her father's murder in this case. The other agents don't seem to take this case seriously, as they do absolutely nothing at all. So Mal starts to look into things.

Past secrets are revealed - his wife had cheated on him and was a drug addict. After her death he arranged an anonymous murder swap. Mal kills someone a stranger wants dead, and the stranger kills the man who supplied his wife with drugs.

Later on, it's revealed that he was responsible for his wife's death - Mal's driving was the reason she swerved off the road and crashed. He also has a year unaccounted for after the murder swap - Mal thinks he may have also killed the agent's father.

Mal was not the only one responsible though - most of the murders were done by his anonymous friend. They end up meeting when he checks up on Brian and Tess. The killer wants Mal to partner up and kill his friends, but Mal ends up shooting the killer himself.

He then calls the agent to tell her all of the story before going into hiding.

This is maybe the second book that I've read this year that blew my mind this much. So, yeah. I definitely recommend it.

My Rating: 5 stars

Vitro by Jessica Khoury REVIEW

 Summary:

On a remote island in the Pacific, scientists privately funded by the mysterious corporation Corpus have taken the test tube embryos and given them life. These beings - the Vitros - have knowledge and abilities most humans can only dream of. But they also have one enormous flaw.

Seventeen year old Sophie Crue is determined to get to Skin Island to find her mother, a scientist who left Sophie behind years ago. With the help of Jim Julien, a young charter pilot, she arrives - and discovers a terrifying secret she never imagined: she has a Vitro twin, Lux, who is the culmination of Corpus's dangerous research.

Now Sophie is torn between reuniting with the mother who betrayed her and protecting the genetically enhanced twin she never knew existed. But untangling the twisted strands of these relationships will have to wait, for Sophie and Jim are about to find out what happens when science stretches too far beyond its reach.

My Thoughts:

I read this book not knowing that it was a sequel....oops. But it does work as a stand alone as well.

Sophie's mother abandoned her as a child to move to Skin Island to continue her research. Sophie was close to her mother when she was still around, and missed her dearly for years. She gets an emergency email from her mom, telling Sophie to go to Skin Island. Sophie is worried, so she tries to find someone who will take her there. After no luck, she runs into Jim, an old childhood friend, who reluctantly agrees to take her there. 

Turns out, her mom was not the one who sent the email - it was Nicolaus, a "failed" Vitro. He gets her to trust him, and then betrays her trust. He wants to control the island and force Sophie to stay with him. 

Moira is not the the saint her daughter thinks she is. Her work revolves around creating and experimenting on lab-grown humans. And in a twist, it turns out that Sophie was a successful Vitro that Moira adopted as her own daughter.

It was so hard to put this novel down. The morality around the creation of grown humans that are experimented on has always been a really interesting topic to me.

If you like dystopian books, then I totally recommend this one.

My Rating: 5 stars

The Fig Eater by Jody Shields REVIEW

 Summary:

Vienna, 1910. The hunt for a killer begins in the darkness of a hot August night, when an eighteen year old girl named Dora (loosely inspired by Freud's famous patient) is found brutally murdered near the Imperial Palace...

My Thoughts:

When I first started reading this book, I thought that I would have to DNF it. Thankfully, I kept reading, and the further I got, the more interesting the book became.

While the characters of the Inspector and Franz are the investigators/police officers, they are not actually the main characters. There is Erszebet, the Inspector's wife, Wally, a governess, and Egon, the photographer. Erszebet gets caught up with her husband's murder case, helping him in any way possible. She also enlists Wally for help. But the case brings her and her husband apart, as Erszebet goes deeper and deeper into the investigation, leading her to lie by omission to him while searching just as hard for the murderer. Egon was enlisted by the police to photograph Dora's body, as well as possible crime scenes. There is only a small list of suspects, but the book leads the reader to believe one is the perpetrator, while it ends up being someone else entirely.

The characters were very well developed throughout the book; some characters' personalities changed with the progression of the story, which was done wonderfully.

Even though I finished and enjoyed it, there was a point where I seriously contemplated DNFing it. This may be a problem for other readers.

My Rating: 3 stars